AXA Car insurance!

liamwilliams

I am moving house tomorrow so went online to change my address for my car insurance and to say that it will be kept in a garage overnight. Low and behold they want to charge me an extra 170 quid for this on top of my premiums! :mad:

It's ridiculous! I am merely moving 1 mile from my current home and securing the car in a garage (currently it's parked on a road).

Anyone else had the same thing happen to them?

raskazz

liamwilliams wrote: »

I am moving house tomorrow so went online to change my address for my car insurance and to say that it will be kept in a garage overnight. Low and behold they want to charge me an extra 170 quid for this on top of my premiums! :mad:

It's ridiculous! I am merely moving 1 mile from my current home and securing the car in a garage (currently it's parked on a road).

Anyone else had the same thing happen to them?

Theft is only one of the risks associated with the area and overnight location of the car. It is also a much lesser proportion of the risk than accidental damage and third party claims, particularly third party bodily injury claims. Not to mention that fraud varies significantly across geograpical areas.

If the insurer's data shows that the risk to them is much greater in the new area then why is it 'ridiculous' to require more premium to cover that greater risk?

lisyloo

Why don't you leave it 1 mile away on the public road?

liamwilliams

It's literally not even a mile, i find it crazy to pay another 170 even if it is in a 'high risk area'!

I would park it up at my parents and take the 5min walk everyday to save 170, it's alot when i need to penny pinch every month!

lisyloo

It's probably a number of factors

1) You've move to a different area - probably higher rated.
2) There is probably an admin fee for the change - which is fair enough if it's reasonable.
3) Insurance went up 32% in 2010, so higher prices are reflected in this.
4) You are unable to shop around in your position.

I would walk short term, but if you really are penny pinching then you may find it difficult to insure you car at renewal and you might have to think about other options.

daveyjp

Parking in a garage can be a bad thing. If you saw the news today most cars now need the key to be stolen.

If a car is in a garage chances are the keys are in the house so it's worth a nosey through the letterbox to see if they have been left near the door.

If a car is parked on a street in which house are the keys?

lisyloo

Yep might be worth asking them for the price with it on the road.

liamwilliams

I managed to get it from 170 to 130 by tweaking a few things, firstly my car was valued at 7,000, but i know its only worth 5,000. I also changed it to parking on the road. I'll still be paying 15quid extra per month but hey-ho! I'll just eat supernoodles for a while

Cheers for your help.

mikey72

You should compare a quote for your old address with a quote for the new address.
If you find they are as you are being charged, fair enough.
If you find they are similar, complain to the insurer you are not being treated fairly, and are being penalised as you can't easily move from them.
If they still don't charge you fairly, complain to the FOS, that the insurer isn't "treating the customer fairly". You'll need print off of the quotes for both addresses.
You may or may not win, but it is becoming more common to put a hefty, and usually unfair charge on captive customers, so you may be lucky if enough people complain.

edit - even though you have paid, you can still complain and ask for a refund, put it in writing though.
Even if you get nowhere, all it'll cost is the price of a couple of stamps.

liamwilliams

mikey72 wrote: »

You should compare a quote for your old address with a quote for the new address.
If you find they are as you are being charged, fair enough.
If you find they are similar, complain to the insurer you are not being treated fairly, and are being penalised as you can't easily move from them.
If they still don't charge you fairly, complain to the FOS, that the insurer isn't "treating the customer fairly". You'll need print off of the quotes for both addresses.
You may or may not win, but it is becoming more common to put a hefty, and usually unfair charge on captive customers, so you may be lucky if enough people complain.

edit - even though you have paid, you can still complain and ask for a refund, put it in writing though.
Even if you get nowhere, all it'll cost is the price of a couple of stamps.

Thanks for that, i will look into it!

lisyloo

If you find they are similar, complain to the insurer you are not being treated fairly, and are being penalised as you can't easily move from them.

Serious question.
Is it not legal and deemed fair in our capitalist society to offer new customers an "introductory discount"?
I would have thought that this behaviour was considered fair enough?

Are you actually challenging the whole concept of the fairness of introcutory discounts?
Or is it something else and have I mis-understood?
I'm not expressing any personal opinion, but I would have thought the concpet of an introductory discount is very well established.